Quality of Life Citations Costly and Unjust

"We come to urge changes in these negative aspects, so that our community's policy on homelessness will be compensatively compassionate and just, thereby honoring the dignity and basic human rights of our thousands of neighbors who have no homes," said Sister Bernie Galvin, director of Religious Witness with Homeless People, a group that since 1993 has actively pursued human rights for the homeless.

Sister Bernie applauded the fact that during the two years Newsom has been in office, there has been an important shift in San Francisco's homeless policy to include a more compassionate approach. Project Homeless Connect, for instance, enlists more than 2,000 volunteers every other month to interact with the homeless and connect them to vital services. According to the project's Web site, more than 10,000 San Franciscans have participated in the program which began in October 2004.

Also, the city finally has prioritized housing. As of Sept. 30, 2005, 1,025 homeless welfare recipients have been transitioned into permanent housing, Sister Bernie noted.

Still, "We are disturbed that the city calls for compassion with one hand, while with the other hand, it continues the policies of the past decade – hard hearted policies that indicate an utter lack of compassion for those still on the streets," said Rabbi Alan Lew of Congregation Beth Sholom.

He mentioned such policies as awakening homeless people between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. as they sleep on sidewalks and asking them to move, impounding homeless people's vehicles which often serve as their housing, and using abusive, insulting and racist language when speaking to homeless people.

"But today we want to focus on one aspect of this policy which is an indisputable fact, a matter of public record, and that is, that the number of citations given to homeless people for camping in public places has increased dramatically under the Newsom Administration," Rabbi Lew said.

While the Police Department reportedly has formed a homeless outreach team of ten officers whose task is to approach homeless individuals more humanely, issuing referrals instead of citations, the number of camping citations issued thus far during the Newsom Administration is nearly triple the number issued during the last 22 months that Mayor Willie Brown was in office, said Michael Bien, a leader in San Francisco's Jewish community.

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